


The Death of Beauty | Who Killed Markiplier?

by DarkstacheLives



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Benjamin has had enough, Bois having fun, Damien is hopelessly in love, Mark and Wil are too chaotic for their own good, Pre-Who Killed Markiplier?, Who Killed Markiplier?, how do you tag????
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 12:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19812523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkstacheLives/pseuds/DarkstacheLives
Summary: This is the first chapter of a story I tried to write a looooong time ago. It didn't go anywhere and I'm not going to finish it anytime soon, but I might as well post it here.Enjoy!





	The Death of Beauty | Who Killed Markiplier?

For the first time in months, the house was calm.

The crisp, early-morning sunlight filtered through the patterned window pane, painting the grand interior with light. A tantalizing aroma drifted from the kitchen, sweetening the air, and making the mood all the more perfect.

A well-used, rich-black grand piano sat pompously in the midst of it all, almost inviting someone to take a seat and let beautiful melodies come to life. A thin, hardly noticeable layer of dust coated the keys that had collected since it's last cleaning. A worn feather duster swooped in and brushed away the intruding particles, almost gracefully ridding it of unwanted grime.

With a slight hum, Benjamin set to work on his daily chores, taking care to assure everything was in its proper place and were running smoothly.

Once he was satisfied with the state of the piano, he moved on the display of fine china residing only a few meters from the entrance of the manor. As he lifted a delicate hand to a beautiful glass plate, a gleeful cry was heard from the rooms above.

In the mere blink of an eye, the soothing silence was broken, as thundering footsteps came bounding down the elegant staircase.

Benjamin, startled, moved his hand far too fast, and knocked a glass off the shelf. With a surprised yelp, he reached to grab it before it crashed to the floor. Thankfully, he caught it, and with a irritated heat in his eyes, he held the antique close to his suited chest and spun around furiously to the two overly-energetic boys entering the room.

"Mark! William! What have I told you about tromping about the house like wild elephants while I'm working?" Benjamin pointed an accusatory finger at the boys, whose heads dipped in shame.

Mark, a small but fit boy of nine, brushed his dark-auburn hair from his eyes and shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry, Benj. Sometimes we get excited, ya'know?"

Benjamin rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the silverware. "You have got to start acting like a mature young man if you expect to get anywhere in this world, Mark. If you're not careful, you're father is going to end up passing down the estate to young William here instead of you."

Mark's eyes widened, his head shooting in the direction of his companion. William J. Barnum, an almost exact but unrelated double of Mark, smirked and crossed his arms. "You hear that, Mark? I'm going to end up living here instead of you!"

"That's not fair!" Mark cried, tackling the boy to the ground.

"Hey, you date! Get your meathooks off me!" William screeched, thrashing out at Mark.

Benjamin scowled, and picked up the boys from their scuffle, pulling them apart.

"Enough of that," Benjamin huffed, turning back to his dusting, while Mark stuck his tongue out at a indignant William. "I had arranged for Damien and Celine to stop by later, but-"

The boys perked up at this.

"Damien and Celine are coming??" Mark gasped in ecstasy, jumping a little.

William responded with, "Celine is coming?"

Benjamin held up a stern hand, miffed at being interrupted, and the boys piped-down their outburst. "As I was saying, I had arranged for your friends to stop by later, but if you two are to be acting like a pair of Wisenheimers, I suppose I could have you help me with my duties instead of enjoying a nice afternoon with them."

Mark and William's eyes widened, heads shaking frantically.

"No! We promise we'll be good!" Mark whined.

William nodded in agreement, him and Mark's previous squabble forgotten. "Yeah, Benj, we promise!"

Benjamin paused in his work, titled his head as he peered at the boys, who were nearly on their knees, begging the butler for the right to see their friends.

"Well, they're not scheduled to come until five," he said finally, "and it's a quarter after noon at the moment..."

He paused, the two adolescents watching intently as the butler made up his mind.

Benjamin straightened and he locked eyes with the boys. "How does this sound; if you two promise to behave, AND you help me with the rest of my assignments, then Damien and Celine can still come over. Do we have a deal?"

William and Mark took no time to agree, falling over themselves to get to Benjamin's supply.

Benjamin jumped back, out of reach of the boys' frantic hands. He grabbed his broom and pushed them off, frowning as they murmured apologies.

"I did say 'behave', did I not?" Benjamin scolded the two yet again, reaching into his box and grabbing two feather dusters. "Take these and make yourself useful."

As Mark and William grabbed the tools, Benjamin shouted out after them, "But I swear, you two be careful now, and if you break anything, it's coming out of your allowance."

********

At five o' clock that same day, the doorbell rang, and Benjamin rushed to open it.

Gripping the door handle, he put on a calm demeanor and took a deep breath, then swung open the entrance to reveal two neatly dressed and beaming, dark-haired siblings.

"Hello, Benjamin!" Damien and Celine greeted in unison, and Benjamin smiled.

He always like the twin siblings for how well behaved they were; never complaining, volunteering to help out around the manor, refraining from making a mess... Benjamin could only wish some of that would rub off on Mark and William.

"Good afternoon," the Butler smiled, sweeping an arm to the side, gesturing for them to enter. "May I take your coats?"

Damien nodded, and Celine responded with a quiet, "If you don't mind."

Benjamin chuckled. "Not at all."

After discarding their coats, the two siblings made their way into the freshly-cleaned foyer and they nodded in awe.

"Everything looks beautiful, Benj," Damien remarked, Celine's eyes widening.

Benjamin hung up their coats and noted the looks of disbelief painted on their faces with satisfaction. "Thank you. It's all thanks to Mark and William; I had them help out for once, and, quite frankly, they did an excellent job."

The siblings shared a look, and began to laugh; the idea of Mark and William doing anything other than obnoxious and/or destructive was inconceivable.

At that very same moment, Mark and William rushed into the hall, once again, bickering with each other.

"I'm going to open the door; it's my house after all!"

"Well, I live here, too- shove off, you goop, I got it!"

The boys froze in their tracks when they saw the dark-haired siblings watching them with amused expressions, as Benjamin came up behind them, placing delicate hands on their shoulders.

"No need to fret, boys," Benjamin's smirk broadened when Mark and William began to sputter in disbelief. "While you were, yet again, going at each others throats, I handled it."

The two boys crossed their arms in annoyance, as Damien and Celine stifled giggles.

Benjamin removed his hands from the two and made his way out of the room. On his way out, he mused, "By the way, they were extremely impressed by the hard work you did on the foyer."

William and Mark perked up at this, their heads swiveling between Benjamin, Damien, and Celine.

"Really?!?" Mark gasped, his face heating up with pride.

Celine nodded, while Damien fiddled with the buttons on his shirt, his face a deep shade of crimson.

William beamed and made his way over to his dark-haired companions, not recognizing the air of admiration admitting from the male twin towards young William.

Putting an arm around Celine and grinning at a flustered Damien, William boasted, "Aw, it was duck soup. I haven't a clue why Benj is always complaining about all his work."

Benjamin froze, one foot mid-step, and William took a pause, sending a cheeky look towards the now scowling butler.

"In fact," William continued, "It is nowhere near as harrowing as the old coot made it out to be."

A silence covered the room.

Mark, Damien, and Celine avoided making eye-contact with their flippant friend, who was on the receiving end of a supercilious glare from Benjamin.

The four knew of William's capricious, arbitrary nature quite well by this point, but it still was a bother when his outbursts struck them at random at the most peculiar times, such as now.

Benjamin straightened his spine and slowly swiveled around to face William, a curt laugh escaping the enraged butler's mouth.

William's field of vision pinned itself on Benjamin's face and, as if all at once, the small boy paled as he seemed to realize he went too far.

"So, you don't seem to think all the hard work I accomplish has any meaning... is that it?"

The young man was now only a few feet from William, the space between them slowly growing thinner, much like Benjamin's patience.

William whimpered and appeared to shrink in Benjamin's shadow, who now towered in front of the boy.

Benjamin narrowed his icy blue eyes, struggling to keep a cool head. He took a deep breath and relaxed, the anger that had suddenly surged up inside of him had cooled.

William appeared to recognize the fact that Benjamin was much calmer now, as he breathed a sigh of relief and adopted his familiar grin.

"See, Benj ol' pal, it was just gas, I didn't mean any of it." William chuckled, as he three friends behind him shifted nervously. They didn't think the butler was done with their accented companion.

Benjamin looked over the boy, taking note of his change of thought process at once. An idea worked it's way into his mind, and his face lit up in what seemed a light-hearted smile to William, but to Mark and the twins, it came across as a sinister, mischievous sneer.

The butler loped an arm across William's shoulders and shook his head. "Oh, it's quite alright, Master Barnum," putting a strong emphasis on "Master".

"Now that we've come to a, however unstable, agreement, I suppose I could use your help with a small task, since you, presumably, have a wide understanding of my job, do you not?"

The sarcasm flew straight over the nine-year-old's head as he nodded eagerly, Mark and Celine exchanged a wide-eyed look, as an uneasy feeling grew in Damien's stomach.

Benjamin all but cackled, steering William out of the parlor. "Wonderful."

**Author's Note:**

> I hope no one gets too attached to this, because I'm not finishing it lol


End file.
